The High Court has granted eight-week anticipatory bail to Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, in a case filed against him by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
The High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Mostafizur Rahman passed the order after hearing a bail plea on Wednesday.
Senior Advocate Momtaz Uddin Ahmed (Mehedi) confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune. Advocate Abdul Matin Khasru and Barrister Mahbub Shafique also stood for Khalidi in court.
Earlier on July 30, ACC filed a case against Khalidi on charges of acquiring wealth beyond his known sources of income.
The graft watchdog’s Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan filed the case with its Dhaka Integrated Office-1.
According to the case documents, Khalidi possesses Tk42 crore in four accounts with HSBC, Eastern Bank, Southeast Bank and Mutual Trust Bank, for which the ACC said no legal source was found.
The ACC says that investigations found that the online news outlet’s editor has accumulated the wealth through fraud by creating forged documents, an offence under Sections 27(1) of the ACC Act 2004.
On November 5, 2019, Khalidi was served with a summons to appear before the ACC over an investigation into "inconsistencies" over his wealth.
The notice said that his statement was required in connection with allegations of “transferring a huge amount of money” by “hiding location” by himself and bdnews24.com, and “earning wealth inconsistent with his known income through illegal activities.”
On November 26, the commission quizzed Khalidi for nearly five hours at its Dhaka headquarters.
The bdnews24.com editor, however, has denied the allegations.
